How to Sell to Chefs and F&B Professionals

Guest: Abdulla, hospitality professional with 26 years of experience running and opening outlets, restaurants, and franchises.

Getting into F&B
Abdulla started at 18, fascinated by everything happening behind the scenes at restaurants — the interaction, the experience-building. Loving to connect with people, he went into hospitality, studying and working at the same time, starting in the hotel industry where he learned the fundamentals.

What makes a salesperson stand out
When someone comes to sell you something, the ones who stand out aim to connect with you first, rather than pitching their product immediately. Without that connection, you feel it’ll be a waste of time. When someone genuinely wants to know you as a person, you become willing to listen and see if there’s an interest in what they’re selling.

Becoming the go-to person
First they build the connection, then you watch whether their promises materialize through their deliveries. Based on reliability, you decide if this is someone you can trust and come back to for other products — versus someone who’s all talk, no action.

Why reliability matters in F&B
If a supplier doesn’t deliver an ingredient on time, or a product runs out, the outlet manager becomes weak in front of guests — they can’t deliver the beautiful experience they promised. In food service, you can’t simply “86” (remove) an item from the menu without consequence; there’s no acceptable excuse for a guest hearing “sorry, we don’t have it today.”

The concept of consistency
Consistency comes from creating recipe cards (piece technique) listing exact ingredients, amounts, and suppliers — because changing a supplier, even for the same ingredient type, can change the whole taste and experience.

Testing and tuning recipes
Once a recipe card is created, it’s tested with foodies or favorite guests who give feedback, tuning the recipe until the best version is found. Then training happens with the chef through all the steps, followed by a trial run to ensure consistency before it goes live — like astronauts simulating a landing before the real mission.

Sequence of Service vs. Hospitality
Sequence of service is the steps needed to reach a certain point — the “what.” Hospitality is about the feeling the guest gets from the experience — the “how.” This is where the ambiance, the way of welcoming, the passion in explaining the food, and creative presentation all come together to differentiate a restaurant from just eating at home.

A story about the law of reciprocity
An airport lounge attendant kept his enthusiasm consistent over hours of cleaning duty, even joking with his own children over the phone between shifts. A small tip and a thank-you followed a genuine human moment — giving comes first, and reciprocity follows.

Passion in service
Whatever you put your heart into while doing it comes with passion, and the outcome shows — because it’s coming from your heart to the guest’s heart.

The ultimate outcome for an outlet owner
Guests today don’t tolerate average service — they want an exceptional one. When you deliver that, the guest becomes your ambassador, doing free marketing about the product, the feeling, and the taste, driving repeat business and profit.

A consulting story: passion that doesn’t transmit
Visiting a coffee shop as a “mystery guest,” the drink was good, but the atmosphere felt off — industrial decor with no real theme, yet the owner had done hours of deep research on Ethiopian and Brazilian coffee beans, and had a vision around a Caribbean concept with specific music. The passion existed but never transmitted to the people delivering the experience — a gap between strategy and implementation caused by insufficient training and immersion in “what good looks like.”

Patience and generosity
To succeed in a food outlet — or any business — you have to be patient and generous. Generous means giving more value than what you receive; patience means understanding that a single transaction’s margin is small, but repeated visits across six daily consumption moments (breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, evening snack) compound over time.

Balancing comfort food and innovation
Guests want their reliable comfort-food menu maintained, but they also want to try something new occasionally. The main menu stays consistent for loyal guests, while the chef gets margin to innovate 1-2 new dishes periodically to keep things fresh and meet evolving expectations.

A story about confident, curated dining
In Singapore, a restaurant with no salt or pepper on the table asked only about allergies and meat preference, then served eight or nine courses chosen entirely by the chef — a confident approach that created a memorable, unforgettable tasting experience years later.

How salespeople can add value
In markets like Saudi Arabia where alcohol isn’t allowed, some suppliers created 0% alcohol gin and whiskey alternatives with the same bottle experience, and went further by offering mixologist services and training. This kind of proactive innovation makes outlet owners stick with that supplier — they know the market trends and bring free support that feels like part of the team.

Being proactive, not waiting
Rather than waiting for the customer to ask for something new, a good salesperson comes with seasonal ideas — suggesting chocolate and cinnamon flavors heading into winter, tying products to quarterly seasonal themes in glassware, decoration, and drinks.

Average spend and upselling
The goal is to benefit maximally from a guest visit without oversetting or ruining their experience — giving choices like “sparkling or still water?” (an alternative-choice close), or suggesting a complementary salad that pairs well with their order, described in a way that makes the guest want to try it.

Waiters need to know the product
It’s rare in this part of the world for waiters to truly know their products — where the wine is from, how the meat was raised. When they know and share this with passion, they become amazing sellers, especially when the products are always available and innovative.

Behind-the-scenes management challenges
An outlet manager’s main duty is checking on staff daily, motivating them, and giving them space to be heard. Daily five-minute briefings that stress team strengths keep people motivated toward driving revenue and creating a wonderful guest experience.

Reading the guest
You need to observe guests’ gestures and body language — if they didn’t finish their plate, it tells you something. Asking open questions and being present on the floor, not just behind a desk, helps you catch and resolve issues before they become a bad online review.

The message beyond food service
Notice your people, go to the ground, talk with your guests and clients, and understand how your team is supporting or not supporting them — this applies to any business, any sales team, any leader.

Closing thought
Zig Ziglar said it best: to get what you want, you must help someone get what they want first. If I help you get what you want, eventually we both get what we want.

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